Much of the combined knowledge base of the world has and continues to be recorded in written form (e.g., in books), so that others are able to more conveniently access and use such information. With the advent of computer technology, more and more information is now stored in an electronic form and accessed via a computer, rather than via the written page. Nonetheless, regardless of the media used to store information, the information has and continues to be regarded as being essentially one-dimensional--that is, a series of ideas strung together in a sequence of words or pages. Book pages and computer displays are each two-dimensional in nature, and may even provide two dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects. However, the basic structure of a collection of information presented in either case is still for the most part one-dimensional insofar as a person processes the information in a generally linear fashion.
A one-dimensional representation of information may be adequate for some when the amount of information is not that great. However, a person may have difficulty fully comprehending a collection of information about a particular topic when the information is located in several sources and/or when the information is associated with several levels of abstraction.
A level of abstraction typically relates to a particular manner of looking at a given collection of information, also referred to as a body of knowledge. Among other criteria, different levels of abstraction may relate to different comprehension levels, e.g., a basic or summary level vs. an advanced level, or different points of view or ways of looking at or stratifying the information.
When accessing information in a body of knowledge (e.g., for performing a particular task relating to such information), a person may be required to manage and understand a number of levels of abstraction at the same time. However, since books and computers typically require a person to access information from one source, and/or from one level of abstraction, at a time, the person may be forced to plod through information in a linear fashion and without the ability to visualize the relationship of the information in the broader scope of the body of knowledge.
Furthermore, in the instances where a person is able to access information from more than one source or level of abstraction, the information is often provided in disjointed views, offering no opportunity for a person to visualize the interaction of information from different levels and/or sources. More importantly, the relationship between the information displayed in the disjointed views, as well as the relationship of the information within the broader scope of the body of knowledge, is often not readily discemable by a user. As a result, it can become difficult for a user to manage and comprehend information in a coherent manner.
One particular area in which conventional manners of accessing information are often lacking is in linking together for a reader various related concepts in a body of knowledge. An author, for example, may indicate a relationship between concepts by discussing the concepts in a predetermined order, or by using cross-references that refer a user to another area of a body of knowledge for a related concept (e.g., "see chapter 5 for more detail"). Given the conventional one-dimensional model for presenting a collection of information, however, such linkages are static and often do not enable both the linked concepts and the manner in which the concepts are linked to be viewed simultaneously.
Moreover, any given pair of concepts need not be linked together in the same fashion in every circumstance. At different levels of abstraction, or whenever a collection of information is being accessed for different purposes, a pair of concepts may or may not even be linked together, or may be linked together based upon different criteria. As one example, at a general, high level of abstraction, the concepts "quick" and "fast" may be considered synonyms, as both may be considered to be characteristics of rapid movement. However, at a more specific, detailed level of abstraction in a particular discipline, "quick" and "fast" may no longer be considered to be synonyms, and may be considered mutually exclusive. For example, while both a high performance jet fighter and a bumblebee may be considered to be "fast", the jet fighter may not be considered to be "quick" like a bumblebee when starting from a dead standstill.
Consequently, a significant need continues to exist for an improved manner of linking together for a user related concepts from a body of knowledge, specifically to facilitate user understanding and comprehension.